1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for controlling a function of a device in an easy, simple, intuitive manner by using a display unit having control and output areas.
2. Description of the Background
Recent rapid advances in communication technologies have allowed continuous increases in the functionality of portable terminals and development of diversified User Interfaces (UIs) and diversified functions using UIs.
These improvements and developments include the recent appearance of a portable terminal having either a touch screen that replaces a typical keypad or a combination of a keypad and touch screen. Further, some portable terminals replace the dome key with a touch screen.
The touch screen as described above enables users to control various functions of the portable terminal. A portable terminal equipped with a touch screen provides various input events such as “tap,” “drag,” “flick,” and “drag & drop,” enabling a user to control functions of the portable terminal.
For example, a user of a portable terminal can control the navigation between objects through direct input of an event to an object by using a finger or stylus. During the direct event input, the finger or stylus may hide that object, contents displayed on the touch screen, or the entire touch screen, which may disturb the user's intuitive recognition of the effected change due to the object navigation and other graphical display details.
Further, since the portable terminal equipped with the touch screen usually uses the whole area of the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen as the touch area, controlling the functions of the portable terminal is difficult since the user usually holds the portable terminal by one hand while performing the touch input on the touch area with the other hand.
Moreover, in the case of an icon or widget specified for the portable terminal equipped with a touch screen, a large image is commonly used for the user's touch input, which hinders the display of more information on a limited size screen.
Further, since touch screen-equipped portable terminal allows navigable operation through a simple user interface and event inputs, the terminal is limited in providing various levels of convenience and promoting users' interests.